Our country is endowed with huge resources of many metallic and non-metallic minerals. The mining activities are extremely poorly regulated despite the fact that as early as 1948, the founding fathers of the constitution realized this need. Over 80000 mines operate…

Structures across rivers have been built since times immemorial until this day – logjams and Bamboo bridges to Steel and Concrete structures. However, the rapidity at which rivers are being stopped, bridged, dammed and altered has begun to reach alarming proposition…

An Assessment of Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand The Access Initiative (TAI) is a global coalition of public interest groups. The coalition is led by a Core team comprising of Advocates Coalition…

Earthquakes have always created curiosity in human minds since ancient times, however the scientific methods to predict earthquakes are still a nascent science despite the rapid strides it has been making. The development of this science during the last few decades is…

Water is not about water. Water is about building people’s institutions and their power to take control over decisions. When we began this effort at Dehradun on a Rapid Action Analysis of the existing water supply systems in this ancient valley town that we chose…

India has a very large base of coal mining and associated thermal power generation projects and is on the verge of massive expansion1 . In the past, the World Bank has supported coal mining and power generation and accompanying environmental and rehabilitation…

On the 8th of November 2000, Uttaranchal became a full-fledged state of India with the formal induction of a separate State Government. Uttaranchal comprises 13 districts that were carved out of the hilly terrains of Uttar Pradesh. They are Pithoragarh, Almora,…

The State of Uttaranchal has embarked on a process of preparing its first ever assessment to prepare a State of Environment Report. Under the ongoing national programme, the State Government recognized that this national process has a huge scope for generating…

The present discussion paper is one of the series of papers related to Mountain Tourism that have resulted from NORAD funded project entitled “Mountain Tourism for Local Community Development”. Mountain Tourism for Local Community Development A Report on Case Studies…